


A Christmas Kiss

by evie_maria



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Klance, Fluff and Angst, M/M, klance, klance fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 02:58:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13067685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evie_maria/pseuds/evie_maria
Summary: [Short Christmas story] Keith is struggling to settle in at a new high school and feels lonely. He finally makes a friend and it's none other than his secret crush, Lance.





	A Christmas Kiss

Keith’s main thought as he walked down the hallway, his heavy backpack slung over his shoulder and a French book held tightly in his hands, was: _this school really gets into Christmas._

Tinsel and paper chains lined the walls and ceilings, and Keith could faintly hear ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ from behind a closed classroom door. The scene was enhanced by the snow outside, falling thick and fast. But despite the school’s festive spirit, Keith still didn’t like it here. Admittedly, it was better than his last school, but it was huge and he hadn’t made a single friend since arriving in October. Consequently, he spent every lunchtime in the school library. He knew that was pretty sad, but anything was better than sitting in the crowded cafeteria and at least the library was quiet.

He was on his way there now to return a book. As he pushed open the door to the clean, spacious room, he noticed the librarian, Mrs Mitchell, standing on a stepladder to put the last branches on her Christmas tree. She slotted the last one in and climbed down, panting. “Hi, Keith!”

“Hi, Mrs Mitchell. I’ve come to return a book.”

“Sure thing.” After she had scanned it in, she looked behind her at the Christmas tree and sighed. “I still need to put all the decorations on it, but I’ve got a staff meeting in five minutes and God knows how long will that take.”

“Would you like me to do it for you?” asked Keith politely.

“Really?” He nodded, and she beamed at him, tucking a strand of white hair behind her ear. “Thank you, Keith. Lights are in the bag, baubles and tinsel are in the box.”

She picked up her coat and bag and left. With a sigh, Keith walked over to the tree. Why had he offered to do this? It was going to take ages, and it would be dark before he got home. It was 4:30 PM and the library was pretty much empty.

He started with the lights, and plugged them in first to check they worked. There were two sets; one set were basic yellow lights, the others were in the shape of lanterns and were multi-coloured. He began to drag the first set around the tree. He had to squeeze between the wall and the tree to get them all the way around, because he couldn’t reach high enough to lift them over.

“Excuse me?”

Keith paused in his struggle with the lights and pushed his black hair away from his face before turning around. “Yeah?”

Lance was standing at the desk. Keith had never spoken to him. He probably had never even noticed Keith existed. But they shared a few classes together and Keith had always been entranced by him; he was by far the hottest guy in the school, and he was so bubbly and happy. He seemed kind, too. He always helped new kids out if they looked lost, and Keith had seen him comforting people if they were stressed, even people he didn’t know. He had two close friends called Hunk and Pidge. Keith had never spoken to them, either.

“Is Mrs Mitchell around?” asked Lance.

Keith shook his head. “She’s in a meeting. I’m just doing this for her.”

“Oh.” Lance stood and watched for a few moments as Keith picked the lights up again. “Do you want me to help you?”

“Umm.” Keith went red, and made sure he didn’t take his eyes from the tree. “No thanks. I think I’ll be fine.” His foot caught in the wire of the lights and he stumbled a little.

Lance stepped forwards. “I don’t need to go home just yet, I can help. Many hands make light work, and all that.”

“Too many cooks spoil the broth.”

Lance laughed. “That’s smart. But seriously.” He picked up the end of the string of lights that was trailing on the floor. “Putting lights on a tree is so much easier with two people. I’ll hold the excess as you take it round.”

Keith ignored his racing heart as he tugged the lights across the branches. When he prepared to squeeze through the gap again, Lance took his arm and stopped him. “You don’t have to do that.” Keith watched as he reached up and lifted them over. “There.” He handed them to Keith again.

“T-thank you,” mumbled Keith, hands fumbling with the lights.

As Lance had said, it was a lot easier with two people and they had done the lights within ten minutes.

“Now for tinsel,” said Lance, pulling it out of the box. “Let’s keep the lights switched on, so we can make sure we don’t cover any of them. I’ll start from the top and you start from the bottom.”

Keith took some silver tinsel and began to drape it over the branches. He worked his way up until they met exactly in the middle. He looked up at Lance, finally making eye contact with him; he noticed that his eyes were bright blue, and his light brown skin was completely smooth and flawless. Lance smiled at him warmly. “Let’s see what baubles we’ve got.”

They crouched beside the box and rifled through the tissue paper to see the ornaments. “This is nice,” said Keith, holding up a glass snowman.

“It’s beautiful,” said Lance. “Should we hang it somewhere low, in case it falls off?”

“Good idea.”

“Oh, I like this one!” exclaimed Lance, picking up a little golden sleigh, with tiny reindeer pulling it. “It’s so cute.”

Watching Lance get excited over the decorations made Keith’s heart happy. Lance was the first person in the school who hadn’t treated him like a complete outsider; his friendly, welcoming attitude made Keith feel at ease.

“You’re new here, aren’t you?” asked Lance, as they hung up the baubles.

“Pretty new,” replied Keith, picking up a bauble that had been made to look like a snowball. “I came in October.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen you around but never got chance to talk. I know your name’s Keith, though. I’m Lance,” he said, with a smile. He paused in his decorating to hold out his hand.

Keith shook his hand shyly. Lance’s palm was smooth and cool, which somehow wasn’t what he expected; Lance looked like he radiated sunshine.

“So, where do you sit at lunch?” Lance let go of Keith’s hand and bent down to get another bauble.

Keith bit his lip. “Uh, I don’t usually go to the cafeteria. I go…here.” He went red and stared at the ground. Great. Now Lance would think he was a loser.

“Hey, good idea! I can’t always be motivated to work at home and it’s always so peaceful in the library. If you want to, you’re welcome to sit with Pidge and Hunk and me in the cafeteria. I’d love to join you in here sometimes, though.”

“Thanks,” said Keith, gratefully.

Lance hummed to himself as he put the last decoration on the tree, then stood back to survey their work. “That’s us done,” he said happily. “Good job, Keith.” He held up his hand for a high five, which Keith returned. “I’m going to theatre club now. You coming?”

Keith shook his head. “I’m not in any clubs.”

“Aw, really? Well, guess you’re the lucky one since you get to go home on time.” Lance picked up his bag. “Hope you get home safe in that snow.”

“Thank you.” Keith could hardly believe the fact that Lance- the handsome, gorgeous, lovable boy he had been captivated by for weeks- had finally noticed him. He vaguely thought over his timetable for tomorrow, wondering how many classes he had with him.

It was a Friday, and they only shared English. The teacher, Mr Howe, had decided to set them a presentation.

“Each pair will be given a theme or character from A Christmas Carol, and on Monday you will present it to the class. You must cover all the key points and include at least one quote for language analysis.”

A girl with a bright pink ponytail sighed loudly and put her head on her desk. Keith stayed quiet and leaned forwards on his elbows, only half listening to Mr Howe as he stared at Lance, who was gazing at the teacher attentively.

“Sir, we literally leave for Christmas break on Tuesday,” complained the guy who sat just in front of Keith. “What’s the point? Half of us won’t even bother to turn up on Monday.”

“In that case, Matthew, you’ll be learning more than the ones who don’t turn up, won’t you?”

“Do we get to choose our partners?” asked Pidge.

“No. I’ve already assigned them. They’re on the next slide.” Mr Howe clicked to the next slide of the PowerPoint and a list of names showed up on the screen. There was a surge of noise as the kids looked for their names. Keith sat back in his chair and sighed, eyes moving down the list. He blinked and looked again. His name was next to Lance’s.

“But why do I have to work with him?” a blonde girl was whining to Mr Howe, who steadfastly ignored her and shuffled some papers around on his desk.

Lance came up to Keith, beaming. “Hey, Keith! We’re partners!”

“Yeah,” said Keith, smiling back at him.

“Mr Howe told me our character is Fred. Do you wanna to my house tonight and work on it?”

“I’ll text my dad,” said Keith shyly.

“Sure thing.”

The bell went for lunch, and Lance went to get his bag. He loitered in the classroom for a few minutes talking to Pidge, and Keith hung back. He was hoping that Lance hadn’t forgotten about his offer, because he really didn’t feel like sitting alone in the library today.

“Uh, please can I sit with you guys?” he asked quietly, as they walked to the door.

“Of course,” said Lance. “Keith, this is Pidge. Pidge, this is Keith.”

Pidge held out her fist and Keith tapped it. “Hi. I didn’t know you and Lance were friends.”

“Um, we only met yesterday,” mumbled Keith.

“We were talking in the library,” said Lance. “Also, we’re partners for this presentation.”

“Oh, cool.”

“My dad replied, by the way,” Keith said to Lance. “He said I can go to your house.”

“Awesome!” said Lance.

For the first time in his life, Keith enjoyed lunch. They met up with Hunk, who was as friendly as Lance, and sat at a table in a corner. Keith shared the same sarcastic sense of humour as Pidge, and Hunk got along with everyone. If ever the conversation steered towards topics Keith didn’t know about, Lance filled him in.

Christmas music was playing through the speakers, and when one song came on Lance smacked the table. “IIIIIIII….don’t want a lot for Christmas…”

“Oh my god.” Pidge laughed.

“I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know. Make my wish come trueeeeeeee…all I want for Christmas, issss….youuuuuu!” Hunk joined in on the final ‘you’, then he and Lance began to dance, clapping their hands and swaying. This was obviously something they did often.

“Lance loves this song,” Pidge informed Keith. “He always gets really into it.”

“ _I don’t want a lot for Christmas, I won’t even wish for snow_ ,” yelled Lance. Keith watched him, laughing.

After lunch, they had separate classes but Lance was waiting for Keith by the gates. They walked together through the thick snow. “The buses are held up, so it’ll be quicker to walk,” explained Lance.

It was going dark already and the street lamps were switching on. Lance sighed happily as they walked down a main road. “I love being outside at Christmas and looking at all the lights.”

“Me too.”

“Do you live far from here, Keith? Do you put lights up?”

“Uh, my dad doesn’t bother about Christmas. We don’t do anything.”

“That’s fine,” said Lance reassuringly. “My family gets really into it. I’ll show you our lights and everything when we get home.”

They passed a park, where the snow had remained thick, and Lance glanced at Keith. “Have you ever had a snowball fight?”

Keith shook his head. “No.”

“Do you want one now?”

Keith looked into his shining blue eyes and laughed. “Sure.”

Lance leaned down and picked up a handful of snow. He shaped it into a ball and threw it at Keith.

Keith awkwardly crouched and made his own snowball and threw it back at Lance. He meant to aim for his chest, but it hit Lance fully in the face. They both stood still for a moment as the freezing cold snow dripped down Lance’s face, then Lance grabbed as much snow as he could carry and chased after Keith. Laughing, Keith ran into the park and took cover behind a bush. Temporarily sheltered, he gathered ammunition and waited for Lance. The second he heard him, he leapt to his feet and launched the snow at him.

Lance spat snow from his mouth and fired back at Keith. Keith shrieked as some of it went down his neck. “I’ll get you for that!”

“Come on, then!” teased Lance, running away from him.

Keith chased after him, grabbing snow from the tops of bushes as he went. He aimed at all at the back of Lance’s head and laughed triumphantly when he saw it go down his neck.

Lance squealed and put his hand down his jacket, but the snow was too far down. He shook himself and ran towards Keith, raising his hand to throw a snowball. As he was running, his foot slipped and he fell face first into the snow.

Keith went to him and crouched beside him. “Are you okay, Lance?”

Lance sat up and grabbed some snow, pushing it down Keith’s jacket. They rolled over and over, trying to get the other covered in snow as much as possible. When they got too tired to continue, they lay still, panting, dripping wet and freezing cold.

Laughing, Lance stood up and held out a hand to help Keith up. “Thank God my house is just around the corner. I could do with a hot drink.”

Shivering and hugging themselves, they ran out of the park and Lance showed the way to his house.

Multi-coloured lights lined every window. “It looks amazing, Lance,” said Keith, dislodging a piece of snow from his hair with his hand.

“Thanks,” said Lance. He turned the key in the door and went inside, taking Keith’s hand and tugging him in too. Keith followed Lance down the hall and into the McClain family’s front room. “You’ve come at a quiet time because Dad’s taken my sisters to their ballet class and they won’t be back for ages. It’s only us and Mom in the house.”

Lance’s mom was a small, softly spoken woman with shoulder length brown hair and eyes as blue as Lance’s. She offered Keith one of her freshly baked Christmas cookies. “I’m going to have a bath now, but please make yourself at home and let Lance know if you need anything.”

She went upstairs, leaving Keith and Lance alone in the front room. “Come and see the Christmas tree,” said Lance, taking Keith’s arm.

It was the biggest tree Keith had ever seen, and was covered from top to bottom in red tinsel and sparkling golden lights. “This is my favourite decoration,” said Lance, gently touching a glass snowflake. “Lots of them are sentimental, because we’ve had them for years.”

He left Keith to admire the tree and walked over to a box of CDs, humming as he sorted through them and smiling when he found the one he wanted. It was a Christmas compilation. He slotted it into the CD player and set the volume quite low, so it would be a background noise.

“Now for the presentation,” he said, picking up his school bag and taking it over the white, comfortable sofa. Keith’s heart suddenly sank. This was the part where he would discover that Lance didn’t want to be friends with him at all, he had only invited him back so Keith could do all the work.

However, this wasn’t the case at all. Lance listened to all of Keith’s ideas, but he also volunteered plenty of his own and they both wrote some of the script. They were done within an hour.

“I bet most of the other kids will do theirs on Sunday night,” said Keith.

Lance shrugged. “I like to do mine as soon as it’s been set. Well, English homework, that is.”

“Is English your favourite subject?”

“No,” smiled Lance. “Well, kind of. I love science and I’m also really good at it. I love English too, but I’m not as good at that. I like thinking of ideas but I’m not so good at writing them down. It’s not my first language, you see.”

“I didn’t know that. You speak it really well,” said Keith.

“I can speak it fine,” said Lance. He laughed. “It’s just the writing of it. Hey, shall we go up to my room? We can make hot chocolate and bring it up with us, if you want.”

“Sure, I’d like that.” Lance took him into the kitchen and they made mugs of steaming hot chocolate and put marshmallows on top. Then they carried it upstairs to Lance’s bedroom.

“I get the biggest room, because I’m the oldest,” admitted Lance, as he pushed the door open with his foot and set the mugs down on his bedside table. “Want to watch a Christmas movie?” Keith nodded. Lance chose a DVD from a basket under his desk and they sat on his bed. He found a blanket and draped it over them and they cuddled together to watch the movie, drinking their hot chocolate. About twenty minutes in, they stopped paying attention and talked.

“I’ve never seen a Christmas movie before,” said Keith. “I didn’t even know they were a thing.”

“Really?” Lance gazed at him curiously. “Do you not like Christmas?”

Keith went red and fidgeted with the blanket, pulling at the fringe on the edge. “It’s not that I don’t like it.” He took a sip of hot chocolate. “It’s just that my dad’s never bothered to do anything for it. We don’t get a tree or presents. In our house, Christmas Day is just like every other day. When I was a kid I wished we celebrated it but now I’m used to it.”

“So you’ve never had a Christmas dinner?”

“No.”

“If you’d like to, you’re welcome to join us on Christmas Day. If your dad doesn’t mind.”

“But, Lance.” Keith looked up at him, his heart pounding as it always did when he saw Lance’s perfect face. “You’ve done so much already, letting me sit with you at lunch and everything. You’re so generous. I feel like I’m just taking advantage of it.”

Lance looked stunned. “Keith, you’re my friend. Letting you sit with me at lunch isn’t generous. Why wouldn’t I ask my friend to sit with me?”

“I guess…” Keith bit his lip. “But Christmas Day is supposed to be spent with your family.”

“Friends are like family. And I’ve invited you, so it’s okay for you to come.”

Keith stared at him for a moment, then smiled happily. “Thank you, Lance. I’ll try and come.”

“I’d love to have you,” said Lance honestly.

Keith’s smile widened and he looked back at the TV. They sat in contented silence, leaning against the headboard as they watched the rest of the movie.

“I suppose I should go home now,” said Keith regretfully, when the end credits rolled.

“Are you walking?” asked Lance.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll walk with you.”

Keith was glad of the company. It was pitch dark and freezing cold, and even in his coat Keith shivered. His feet sank into the snow, which made them cold and wet.

Lance reached for his hand and felt it. “It’s like a block of ice,” he commented. “Don’t you have gloves?”

“I left them at home.”

Lance smiled at him in the darkness and held his hand in his gloved palm. “You can share mine.”

Keith’s heart fluttered happily, and his face blushed pink. The prospect of a bleak, lonely Christmas was rapidly melting.

It wasn’t a long walk to Keith’s house and they were at the front door in a few minutes. They stood, shivering, and Lance looked up to see a few stars burning in the black December sky. He looked back at Keith, whose breath was visible. “You’re cold. Better get inside.”

“Yeah,” whispered Keith, shifting his weight from foot to foot and shivering.

Neither of them moved. Lance stood facing Keith, still holding his hand, and he leaned forwards and kissed him. It was a ghost of a kiss, his lips barely brushing Keith’s and pulling away instantly, but Keith’s eyes widened and he moved and tilted his head to kiss Lance back. Lance’s lips were warm, and he could feel the coldness leaving his and life flowing back into them as he pressed them against Lance’s. They kissed for about ten seconds before stepping apart.

“Goodnight, Keith.”

“Goodnight, Lance.”

Suddenly it didn’t matter anymore that Keith wouldn’t be getting any presents this Christmas. He had just received the most magical one he could ever have imagined.

 


End file.
